Now I'm pissed....and so I'm only going to reconstruct the highlights.

Florida has a 10.5% unemployment rate. Florida has no state income tax.....because brilliant Florida politicians know for sure that having a state income tax means fewer jobs and less prosperity. Don't ask me why Florida has a 10.5% unemployment rate....ask the brilliant Florida politicians.

Anyway....in light of those high unemployment numbers, despite no state income tax, Florida Republicans have decided to lay the blame on the victims and dole out a bit of tough love.

The Senate plan, approved on a party-line 29-10 vote, keeps the maximum benefit at 26 weeks. But it creates a sliding scale that would cut or add a week of unemployment benefits for every half-percent the unemployment rate dropped or climbed.

Under the Senate bill, Florida’s unemployment rate — 11.1 percent in March — would have to reach 12 percent to receive the full 26 weeks.

Why is this being done?

The bill cuts by 10 percent the tax rate that businesses pay to cover the costs of unemployment benefits and makes it easier for companies to keep former workers from collecting benefits.

There are now 4.4 people seeking every single available job in the country.

Florida's Felonious Rick Scott and his Race To the Bottom Business Band, wanted the legislature to spank the unemployed a bit harsher.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, suggested her bill was a take-it-or-leave-it offer for the House, Gov. Rick Scott and the business lobbyists, all of whom have been pushing her to cap benefits at no more than 20 weeks.

Just as we've seen elsewhere....in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan....state revenues are being taken away from the average, the poor, the elderly and the disabled, and redistributed to the already powerful and wealthy.

I heard the tune that Florida's Republicans are singing over this past Mother's Day weekend. You know the drill.....it's all those darn teachers, police, EMT's and shovel-leaning road workers fault that we're in the mess we're in. And if those lazy, overpaid takers would just give up their Cadillac health care plans....plans which are better than mine....then we could balance the budget in no time. Lazy so-and-so's.

In Florida, it's not simply public employee sloths under attack. If you are unemployed in Florida, to Felonious Rick, it's your own damn fault...and that being the case....you deserve to be punished.

I find it interesting when Republicans in a state legislature have to fend off a Felonious Governor and his business partners from beating up the victims more thoroughly.

What I also find interesting is how successful America's wealthy have been in controlling the narrative about the cause of our Great Recession. Interesting....and disgusting. The richest people in our country, gambled away $7 trillion of America's assets in a clusterf*ck orgy of greed which would make the ancient Romans blush. And yet the fault for our economic downfall has been placed at the feet of average working Americans.

Banksters can't be held accountable, new Consumer Protection Bureaus can't be implemented, taxes cannot be raised on our wealthiest.....but the unemployed can be victimized and your local teachers and road workers can be blamed.